Matthewsession4

Intro to the Gospel of Matthew
Matthew 9:1- 16:20

• Matthew 8 and 9 is a collection of
miracle stories
• Chapter 10 contains the second block
of teaching material found in Matthew.
The subject of this block of material is
the mission to which Christ
commissions his disciples.

• Three major motifs are intertwined
through the collection of nine (or ten)
miracles found in Matthew 8 and 9
• The first motif is that of Jesus' power
and authority
• The second motif of this section is
people's response to Jesus and his
ministry
• The final motif in chapters 8 and 9 is
discipleship.

• Healing the Paralytic - Matthew 9:1-8
• Matthew's chief purpose in recounting
this miracle is the question of Jesus'
authority to forgive sins.
• Modern people often separate spiritual
and physical needs so that we see no
connection between healing and the
forgiveness of sins. First century
Judaism would have assumed some
connection

• For healing to take place, one had to
find out what the sin was and to try to
make atonement for it
• Objection came when Jesus himself
pronounced forgiveness of the man's
sins.
• Verse 4 continues the emphasis on
Jesus' authority

• Not only does he claim the right to
forgive sins, but he also sees and
knows the intentions of people's heart
• 'Rise and walk," recognizes the
intimate connection between spiritual
and physical health. The point is that
neither is difficult to say but only God
can actually forgive sins and heal a
paralyzed body

• The Call of Matthew - Matthew 9:9-13
• Matthew was a tax-collector in
Capernaum.
• He would have been what we call a
customs officer concerned with
collecting import and/or export taxes on
trade goods
• They saw such taxes as Roman
robbery of money that rightfully
belonged to them

• This hatred increased when the tax-
collector himself was a Jew as Matthew
was
• The invitation to discipleship includes
implicitly the offer of forgiveness of sins
• In Jewish culture of that time eating with
another person was to enter into a
covenant of friendship with them.
• To eat with sinners meant accepting
them as they were.

• For Jesus, eating with sinners became
a way of offering forgiveness and grace
to them.
• Verse 13 issues a stern challenge to
the Pharisees to learn to read the
Scriptures correctly.
• "Go, think more deeply, study and
meditate until you arrive at the true
meaning."

• The Pharisees viewed holiness in terms
of separation from sin by separation
from sinners and avoidance of things
that could defile them
• For Jesus, holiness was mercy, grace,
and love that did not evaluate people's
worth on the basis of their past actions.

• The Issue of Fasting - Matthew 9:14-17
• Fasting was one of the hallmarks of Judaism in
the ancient world.
• Jews usually saw fasting as an act of penance
or mourning
• Jesus' response clearly "fits" the context of
these chapters in Matthew. Given the Jewish
view of fasting, it was quite inappropriate when
the bridegroom, Jesus, was present. They did
not need to fast to be forgiven of sins. Jesus
freely forgave sinners without their even asking

• The old garment and old wineskins of
the Pharisees' religious traditionalism
could not contain the new patch and
new wine of Jesus' teaching.
• Jesus anticipated the rise of a new
structure (the church) to "contain" the
new wine of his teaching.
• The ever-present danger of the church
now is that we become old wineskins,
inflexible and incapable of stretching

• More Healings - Matthew 9:18-34
• The third set of miracles in Matthew 8
and 9 is found in 9:18-34
• The theme in this section is faith.
• The first story, combines the raising of
the ruler's daughter from the dead and
the healing of the woman with a flow of
blood

• Matthew's story is that Jesus is seen to
have the power to discern the woman's
thought and needs no information to
understand what had happened
• The healing of two blind men
• The appeal of these two blind men is for
mercy
• The final healing miracle in Matthew 8
and 9 is the healing of the mute man
described in 9:32-34

• Conclusion and Transition - Matthew
9:35-38
• Summary of Jesus' ministry
• Jesus' motivation in healing as
compassion.
• The section ends with Jesus' command
to pray that God would raise up workers
for the harvesting of people's lives.

• Teaching on Mission - Matthew 10
• Chapter 10 begins by describing the
answer to that prayer - the twelve
disciples named and given authority to
cast out demons and heal diseases
• There are four key points in verses 1-4
-commissioned to ministry; ministry of
the disciples was to be virtually identical
to that of Jesus;the twelve represented
the creation of new Israel; ministry is for
the renewal and restoration of Israel

• Verses 5-15 provide specific
instructions for this mission
• First, the shepherding ministry of the
disciples will be patterned after the
shepherding ministry of Jesus
• Second, the disciples are
commissioned to do exactly as Jesus
has done
• Finally, the disciples are told to seek out
worthy hosts in whatever town or village
they enter

• Matt 10:16-39 – Facing Persecution
• This section is composed of five sections -be
prepared for persecution; persecution of
disciples is part of the pattern that began with
opposition to Jesus;courage in the face of
fear when persecution comes; division that
discipleship demands.
• The call of God on a person’s life must have
priority above every other allegiance

• Matthew 10:40-11:1 - Conclusion:
Receiving Christ’s Servants
• The final section of the mission discourse in
Matthew 10 speaks of the ways followers of
Christ may be "received" in positive ways
• Furthermore, whatever reward there is for
discipleship, it is shared by those who give
positive reception to the gospel. If you are
called to witness as a prophet those who
accept your message share in your prophetic
reward

• Matthew 11:2-12:50 - Rising Opposition
• Matthew has brought variety of materials
together because they support a common
theme, that of unbelief or opposition to Jesus
and his ministry
• The first collection is built around the
questions of John the Baptist
• The second collection of material emphasis
the opposition of the Pharisees

• Matthew 11:2-24 - Doubts and
Dissatisfaction
• This expression of doubt comes from
John the Baptist
• It is instructive that Jesus did not voice
any criticism of John.
• He understood the reason for John’s
doubts. John had apparently hoped for
a militaristic messiah

• Without claiming to be the Messiah and
being tagged with any of the various
portraits that Jews painted of the
Messiah, Jesus pointed to the
Scriptures that explained what he was
doing in messianic terms.
• Instead of criticizing and instead of
directly arguing, he amassed the
needed evidence for John to draw his
own conclusions and then allowed him
to do so

• His comments were designed to cause
the listeners to examine their own
motivation for being interested in John’s
ministry
• However, Jesus (and Matthew) wants
his audience to understand that John
was more than just any prophet
• The very ministry of John the Baptist as
forerunner affirmed the messiahship of
Jesus

• The resistance of the Jews to making a
kingdom choice is illustrated in verses
16-19. They found John’s demands too
hard and Jesus’ grace too embracing of
sinners. They decided it was easier to
complain about the messengers than to
respond in obedience to the message

• Matthew 11:20-12:42
• Matthew 11:2-12:50 - Rising Opposition
• Third major narrative section of the first
gospel.
• The theme of this section is doubt,
indifference, and dissent.
• The cities in which he had done the
majority of his miracles had not
repented

• The cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida are
mentioned first
• The word "woe" that Jesus pronounced over
these cities was an exclamation of grief
• Jesus then turned his attention to
Capernaum
• Capernaum was the place where God most
directly revealed himself in the miracles of
Christ. For the inhabitants of Capernaum to
refuse to repent was the equivalent of setting
themselves up as equals and rivals of God.

• A logical question (and one that is often
asked) is how people who received such
direct revelation from Christ as Capernaum
did could "not repent" and end up rejecting
Christ.
• However, it seems better to take this
statement as ironic rather than literal
• Matthew 11:28-30 contain one of the most
gracious invitations to Christ that can be
found in the gospels. The invitation is directed
to those who labor and are burdened down

• Perhaps the key word in this invitation is
the word "yoke." This word was used in
Judaism in a figurative way to signify
submission, discipline, duty, and
obedience. However, it also spoke of
freedom and life.
• To become a student of the oral law
was to take upon oneself the "yoke of
the Torah

• Verse 30 states that this Christian yoke is
easy
• Conflict with Judaism - Matthew 12:1-45
• The unifying theme in chapter 12 is conflict
with Judaism
• Matthew’s readers would have naturally
contrasted the gentle or "easy" yoke of Jesus
mentioned in chapter 11 with the "yoke of the
Torah" that the Pharisees insisted upon. That
contrast now appears in a specific example in
Matthew 12:1-8,

• For Matthew there are two issues at stake in
this passage.
• The first is difference in views of the
appropriate way to keep the Sabbath
• The second issue of critical importance in this
passage is the right of Jesus to introduce a
new Sabbath interpretation
• Jesus’ reply to the criticism of the Pharisees
has four segments that may be thought of as
four arguments against the "yoke" of the
Pharisees

• Matthew 12:15-21 contains Matthew’s
conclusion to the Sabbath controversy
stories
• These verses contain the longest
quotation from the Old Testament to be
found in the first gospel.
• The next major section in Matthew 12 is
verses 22-37 in which Jesus is accused
of performing his healings by the power
of Satan and in which he responds to
that charge.

• The reality of Jesus’ power and of the
miracle itself could not be questioned.
The only recourse for the Pharisees
was to question the source of Jesus’
power
• The accusation is patently foolish as
Jesus proceeds to demonstrate.
• The uniqueness of Jesus’ ministry is
that it demonstrates the power of the
Spirit of God at work in the world.

• Verses 31-32 deal with blasphemy against
the [Holy] Spirit and the unforgivable sin.
• The next evidence of conflict with Judaism
comes with the demand by the scribes and
Pharisees for a sign from Jesus.
• He responded by pointing to Jonah and the
"sign" of Jonah’s three day and night
residence in the whale’s belly. No other sign
will be given the Jews of Jesus’ day.

• Matthew 11:2-12:50 - Rising
Opposition
• The themes of these chapters are
doubt, indifference, and disagreement.
• Teaching in Parables - Matthew 13:1-
52
• The third major collection of teaching
materials in the first gospel.

• The first was the Sermon on the Mount
found in Matthew 5-7. The second was
the Missions discourse of Matthew 10.
This third collection of Jesus' teaching
is primarily composed of parables,
interpretations of parables, and a
discussion of the purpose of Jesus' use
of parables.

• Jesus and the gospel writers seemed to
operate with a Hebrew concept of
parables.
• The Hebrew word for parable is mishal
and it was used of many kinds of
sayings, from proverbs to illustrations to
word plays to allegories. Similitudes,
illustrations, examples, proper parables,
and allegories are all structured
differently and have slightly different
functions in the Scriptures

• The Parable of the Sower - Matthew
13:1-9
• But followers of Christ are not to fear
the rejection of his message. For those
who accept it the results will be beyond
human imagination.
• The Purpose of Parables - Matthew
13:10-17 To those who open their
hearts and apply their minds the
parable are like a shell that opens to
reveal amazingly beautiful truths.

• The Interpretation of the Parable of
the Sower - Matthew 13:18-23
• The interpretation of the parable of the
sower found in Matthew 13: 18-23 has
some allegorical elements.
• Each soil is compared to a human
circumstance reflecting rejection or
receptivity to the gospel.

• The Parable of the Weeds - Matthew 13:24-
30
• The parable of the weeds appears only in
Matthew's gospel
• The parable of the weeds seems to fit
Matthew's more realistic tastes and it also
allows Jesus to address a real problem in
Matthew's church.
• The parable is thus governed early on by the
allegorical idea of Satan as the spiritual
enemy of the church

• The main point is that the Kingdom (and for
Matthew - the church) will have both good
(wheat) and evil (weeds) people in it
• The allegory also acknowledges that human
efforts to uproot the sinners and throw them
out of the church will cause more harm than
good.
• The church will have to live with the ambiguity
of a mixture of good and sinful people in her
midst.

• The Parables of the Mustard Seed and
Leaven - Matthew 13:31-33
• The two brief parables of the mustard seed
and leaven are technically described as
similitudes.
• A similitude offers a comparison between the
kingdom and a general truth or reality.
• The similitude "works" by inviting the listener
to accept the comparison in order to see the
application

• The application is clear. The Kingdom
may begin in a small way, but its final
result will be large
• The disciples were tempted to see
doubt and rejection as somehow
invalidating Jesus' preaching of the
Kingdom.
• The seeming weakness and smallness
of the Kingdom is preliminary. Wait until
the final results are in.

• Teaching in Parables – Matt. 13:1-52
• Matthew 13 contains seven or eight parables,
depending on whether or not one considers
verse 52 a parable.
• The first section deals with the parable of the
sower and is contained in verses 1-23.
• The second section is marked by the parable
of the weeds in verses 24-30 and its
interpretation in verses 36-43.
• The third section consists of verses 44-52
with the parables of the treasure, the pearl,
and the net.

• The Parable of the Sower - Matthew 13:1-9
• The "unrealistic" point of this parable comes at the
size of the crop.
• A good crop in Palestine was considered to be ten
fold. Jesus' description of the harvest as one
hundred, sixty, and thirty fold was bound to shock the
listeners. "No way!“
• If the point is the kingdom of God, Jesus was
proclaiming that though not everybody would
accept the gospel message, for those who
did the results would be spectacular in their
lives.

• Thus the doubt of John the Baptist in
Matthew 11 and the rejection of Jesus
by Pharisees in chapter 12 are like
seed falling on the path and on rocky
soil
• Followers of Christ are not to fear the
rejection of his message. For those who
accept it the results will be beyond
human imagination

• The Purpose of Parables – Matt. 13:10-17
• These have been extremely difficult verses
for the modem Western mind to understand.
• Matthew begins by placing the question of the
reason for Jesus' use of parables on the lips
of the disciples
• Jesus' reply begins by indicating that
parables allowed insiders (disciples) to
understand, but prevented outsiders from
discovering the secrets of the kingdom

• To those who open their hearts and apply their minds
the parable are like a shell that opens to reveal
amazingly beautiful truths. But those who make no
effort to understand or to be open find only a shell
locked tightly shut
• This section on the purpose of the parables
explains why some have rejected Jesus and
by means of it Matthew warns us as readers
of the effort and openness that is required if
we are to enter the Kingdom.

• The Interpretation of the Parable of the Sower
– Matt. 13:18-23
• The interpretation has some allegorical
elements
• The seed is compared to the message about
the Kingdom of God and each soil is
compared to a human circumstance reflecting
rejection or receptivity to the gospel

• The Parable of the Weeds – Matt. 13:24-30
• The parable of the weeds appears only in
Matthew's gospel
• The parable of the weeds seems to fit
Matthew's more realistic tastes and it also
allows Jesus to address a real problem in
Matthew's church.
• The main point is that the Kingdom (and for
Matthew - the church) will have both good
(wheat) and evil (weeds) people in it The
church will have to live with the ambiguity

• The Parables of the Mustard Seed and
Leaven - Matthew 13:31-33
• The two brief parables of the mustard
seed and leaven are technically
described as similitudes
• a similitude offers a comparison
between the kingdom and a general
truth or reality

• In verse 31 the kingdom of heaven is
not like a certain mustard seed. It is like
every mustard seed.
• The listener responds, "Okay, how?"
• Jesus then makes the point -The
similitude "works" because a mustard
seed is never large - it is always small.
And the final product is always a large
bush, never a small one.

• The Kingdom may begin in a small way,
but its final result will be large
• The seeming weakness and smallness
of the Kingdom is preliminary. Wait until
the final results are in. Then you will see
the greatness of the Kingdom
• In a similar fashion the similitude of the
leaven points out that the Kingdom
does not appear to be doing anything.
However, that leaven is working a
growth that only later will be visible.

• Parables of the Kingdom: Matt 13:44-
52
• Like the parables of the mustard seed and
the leaven, those of the treasure and pearl
form a pair
• Both sets of the parable pairs share the
themes of hiddenness and smallness.
• Burying a treasure in the ground was
common in the biblical

• The point of the parable is not to tell us
what to do when we find treasures
hidden in a field
• The parable uses what any person in
the ancient world would have done to
illustrate how we should respond to the
discovery of the kingdom of God

• In the ancient world, if a treasure was found
in a field the finder would re-bury it and
immediately take whatever steps would be
necessary to buy the field. Any price would be
worth paying in order to own the field and
thus obtain the treasure.
• In a similar fashion, it is worth any price to
become a part of the kingdom of God.

• The parable of the pearl makes a
similar point
• There is some evidence that pearls were
even valued more highly than gold.
• Some scholars regard this detail as
exaggeration in order to show how valuable
the kingdom is.
• Another point of comparison is the fact that
both the hidden treasure and the pearl
(because of its small size) could easily be
missed

• The parable of the net, found in verses 47-50,
moves in another direction.
• The Greek word for the net describes a seine-
net that would have had floats on one edge
(the top) and weights on the other. It was
designed to sweep through a section of water
and collect all the fish bigger than the net grid

• Obviously, it would take in every kind of
fish without regard to their value
• Once again, the point is that the
kingdom (and the church) will collect
less than desirable characters along
with the good. However, the separation
must await the final judgment
• This parable highlights the fact that the
kingdom and the church belong to God

• Verses 51-53 conclude this teaching section
on parables that constituted most of Matthew
13. The question, "Have you understood all
these things?" is directed both the disciples
as Jesus’ original audience and to the
readers who are Matthew’s audience.
• The life of discipleship should equip us to
recognize the complex relationship between
new and old in the kingdom

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